1 Introduction

Not to do evil, to cultivate good, to purify one's mind,

this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
Dhammapada, vs. 183

The mind cannot be purified if we do not thoroughly investigate it. When we try to analyse the
mind it seems to escape us, we cannot grasp it. The mind is variable, it changes very rapidly. At
one moment there is a mind with attachment, at another moment a mind with generosity, at
another moment a mind with anger. At each moment there is a different mind. Through the
Buddhist teachings we learn that in reality the mind is different from what we mean by the word
mind in conventional language. What we call mind are in reality different fleeting moments of
consciousness succeeding one another very rapidly. Since mind has in psychology a meaning
different from mind according to the Buddhist teaching, it is to be preferred to use the Pli
term citta (pronounced: chitta). Pli is the language of the Buddhist scriptures of the Theravda
tradition. Citta is derived from the Pli word for thinking (cinteti). All cittas have in common that
they think of an object, but we have to take thinking here in a very general sense, meaning,
being conscious of an object, or cognizing an object.
The Buddha's teachings explain in a very precise way the objects which, each through the
appropriate doorway, can be cognized by citta. For example, colour or visible object can be
known through the eye-door, sound through the ear-door. Through each of the senses the
corresponding object can be known. Through the mind-door all kinds of objects, also concepts
and ideas, can be known. Before we studied the Buddhist teachings we had a vague, general idea
of a thinking mind and we did not have a precise knowledge of objects which are cognized each
through their appropriate doorway. Citta is varied because of the different kinds of objects it
experiences. Seeing is totally different from hearing.
Citta is varied because of the different mental factors or adjuncts which accompany it in various
combinations. The Pli term cetasika (pronounce: chetasika) is to be preferred to the English
translations of this term which vary in different textbooks. Cetasika means literally: belonging to
the mind (ceto). There are fifty two different cetasikas which each have their own characteristic
and function. Later on I will explain the rational of these cetasikas and their classification. There
is only one citta at a time, cognizing one object, and each citta is accompanied by several
cetasikas which also experience the same object, but which each perform their own function
while they assist the citta in cognizing that object. They arise and fall away together with the
citta.
Citta and cetasika are mental phenomena, nma, which are real in the ultimate sense. Ultimate
realities or paramattha dhammas have each their own characteristic, their own function, they are
true for everybody.
There are four paramattha dhammas:

citta

cetasika
rpa
nibbna

Citta, cetasika and rpa are sakhra dhammas, conditioned dhammas; they do not arise by
themselves, each of them is conditioned by other phenomena. Citta for example, does not arise
by itself, it is conditioned by the accompanying cetasikas. Nibbna is the unconditioned
dhamma, visakhra dhamma or asakhata dhamma; it does not arise and fall away. Nibbna is
the object of the supramundane citta, lokuttara citta, arising at the moment of enlightenment.
What we call in conventional language a person is in the absolute or ultimate sense only citta,
cetasika and rpa. There is no lasting person or self, there are only citta, cetasika and rpa
which arise and then fall away immediately. Citta and cetasika are both nmas, realities which
can experience something, whereas rpa does not experience anything.
Citta and cetasika arise together, but they are different types of paramattha dhammas. In order to
explain the difference between citta and cetasika the commentary to the first book of the
Abhidhamma, the Atthaslin, uses the simile of the king and his retinue. The king is the chief,
the principal, and his retinue are his attendants. Even so are the cittas which arise in our daily life
the leaders in cognizing the object, and the cetasikas are the assistants of citta. The cetasikas
have to perform their own tasks and operate at each moment of citta. Citta with its accompanying
cetasikas arise each moment and then they fall away immediately.
The reader may wonder what the use is of knowing the details about citta and cetasikas. Citta and
cetasikas are not abstract categories, they are active at this very moment. We could not see, hear,
think, act, be angry or have attachment without cetasikas. Seeing, for example, is a citta. It is the
citta which cognizes colour or visible object. In order to perform its function it needs the
assistance of cetasikas, such as contact, which contacts visible object, or one-pointedness, which
focuses on the object. It is important to have more understanding of cetasikas. We should know
that defilements are cetasikas and that good qualities are cetasikas. They arise in daily life and
when they appear we should investigate their characteristics. Otherwise we would not know what
is right and what is wrong. We would not know when defilements arise and how deeply rooted
they are. If the Buddha had not taught in detail about defilements we would only have a vague
idea about them. How could we see the danger of defilements when they are unknown to us?
How could we develop what is wholesome if we would not know the characteristics of
wholesome cetasikas and the different ways of good deeds? There is a great variety of cetasikas
accompanying the different cittas. Akusala cittas are accompanied by cetasikas which are
defilements, whereas kusala cittas are accompanied by cetasikas which are good qualities. Apart
from defilements and good qualities there are also cetasikas which accompany cittas which are
unwholesome, cittas which are wholesome and cittas which are neither wholesome nor
unwholesome.
Citta and its accompanying cetasikas are closely associated and they condition one another.
There is a relationship and interdependence between them. Citta conditions cetasikas. When the
citta is wholesome, kusala, all accompanying cetasikas are also kusala, even those kinds of
cetasikas which can arise with each type of citta. When the citta is unwholesome, akusala, all the
accompanying cetasikas are akusala. Feeling, for example, is a cetasika which accompanies each

citta. When there is pleasant feeling, it can accompany kusala citta or akusala citta rooted in
attachment, but its quality is different in each case. Cetasikas condition the citta they accompany,
and the cetasikas which arise together also condition one another. For example, the cetasika
understanding, pa, conditions the citta and the other cetasikas it accompanies. When the citta
with generosity is accompanied by pa which realizes that generosity is kusala, the degree of
kusala is higher than in the case of kusala citta without pa.
When there is generosity, there is no person who is generous, generosity is a cetasika performing
its function while it assists the kusala citta. When there is attachment, there is no person who is
attached, attachment is a cetasika performing its function. The cetasikas which accompany the
citta experience the same object as the citta while they each perform their own function. At one
moment there can be attachment to colour which is experienced through the eye-door, at another
moment there can be attachment to sound which is experienced through the ear-door, at another
moment there can be attachment to the concept of a person which is an object experienced
through the mind-door. Citta and its accompanying cetasikas arise and fall away extremely
rapidly. When right understanding has not been developed we cannot distinguish between
different objects experienced through the different doorways. We are inclined to join different
realities together into a whole, and thus we cannot realize their arising and falling away, their
impermanence, and their nature of non-self. Through the study of the Buddhist teachings there
can first be more understanding of the true nature of realities on the theoretical level. Only
through the development of direct understanding of realities one will know the truth through
one's own experience.
There is no abiding ego or self who can direct the operations of the mind. There is a different
citta all the time and it is accompanied by different cetasikas. They arise because of their own
conditions. We are so used to thinking in terms of a mind belonging to the human person. It is
difficult to understand that there is no ego who can direct his mind, who can take his destiny in
his own hands and shape it. If everything is beyond control where is the human dignity? If one
walks the Buddha's Path one will know the difference between what is true in the ultimate sense
and what is only imagination or a dream. There will be less delusion about the truth and there
will eventually be elimination of all that is impure and unwholesome. This is mental
emancipation and is that not the highest good one could attain?
The reader may find it cumbersome to know which types of cetasikas can accompany which
types of citta, and to learn the different classifications of the groups of defilements. Such details,
however, help us to be able to see the danger of unwholesomeness and the benefit of
wholesomeness. When we know with what types of citta the various cetasikas are combined we
will come to understand the underlying motives of our actions, speech and thought. Detailed
knowledge will prevent us from taking for kusala what is akusala.
In order to help the reader to understand the variety of cetasikas which accompany different
cittas, I shall first summarize a few basic points on citta I also dealt with in my Abhidhamma in
Daily Life.
Cittas can be classified in many ways and one of these is the classification by way of jti
(literally birth or nature). Cittas can be of the following four jtis:

akusala
kusala
vipka (result)
kiriya (inoperative, neither cause nor result)

The cetasikas which accompany citta are of the same jti as the citta they accompany. Some
cetasikas accompany cittas of all four jtis, others do not.
Cittas arise and fall away very rapidly and we often do not know that a different citta of another
jti has arisen after the present citta has fallen away. For example, we may think that the present
citta is still vipkacitta, the result of kamma, when it is actually akusala citta with attachment or
with aversion on account of the object which is experienced. Seeing, for instance, is vipkacitta.
The moment of seeing is extremely short. Shortly after it has fallen away, cittas rooted in
attachment, aversion or ignorance may arise and these are of a different jti: the jti which is
akusala.
Cittas perform different functions. For example, seeing is a function (kicca) of citta. Seeingconsciousness which performs the function of seeing arises in a process of cittas; it is preceded
and followed by other cittas which perform their own functions. Whenever there are senseimpressions there is not merely one citta, but several cittas arising in a process, and each of these
cittas performs its own function. It is the same with cittas arising in a mind-door process. As for
cittas which do not arise in either sense-door process or mind-door process, they also have to
perform a function. The rebirth-consciousness (paisandhi-citta), the life-continuum (bhavangacitta) and the dying-consciousness (cuti-citta) do not arise in a process of citta1. There are
bhavanga-cittas in between the different processes of citta.
Summarizing the cittas which perform their functions in a sense-door process and then in the
mind-door process2 when a rpa impinges on one of the sense-doors:

atta-bhavanga (past bhavanga)

bhavanga calana (vibrating bhavanga)
bhavangupaccheda (arrest bhavanga, the last bhavanga arising before the object is
experienced through the sense-door)
five-sense-door-adverting-consciousness (pacadvrvajjana citta)
sense-cognition (dvi-pacavia, seeing-consciousness, etc. )
receiving-consciousness (sampaicchana-citta)
investigating-consciousness (santraa-citta)
determining-consciousness (votthapana-citta)
7 javana-cittas (kusala cittas or akusala cittas in the case of non-arahats),
2 registering-consciousness (tadrammaa-cittas which may or may not arise).

Then there are bhavanga-cittas and the last two of these, arising before the object is experienced
through the mind-door, are specifically designated by a name. The process runs as follows:

bhavanga calana (vibrating bhavanga)

bhavangupaccheda (which is in this case the mind-door through which the cittas of the
mind-door process will experience the object)
mind-door-adverting-consciousness (mano-dvrvajjana-citta)
7 javana-cittas
2 tadrammaa-cittas (which may or may not arise).

After the mind-door process has been completed there are bhavanga-cittas again.
I think that it is useful for the reader to review the enumeration of cittas I have given above, since
I, in the following chapters on cetasikas, shall refer to cittas performing different functions in
processes and to cittas which do not arise in a process. All these cittas are accompanied by
different types of cetasikas.
The study of cetasikas will help us to have more understanding of the intricate operations of the
mind, of citta and cetasikas. It will help us to understand in theory that citta and cetasikas act
according to their own conditions, and that an abiding agent who could direct mental activities is
not to be found. The study of the realities as taught by the Buddha can remind us to investigate
them when they appear in our daily life. Theoretical understanding of the truth is a foundation
for the development of direct understanding of realities as they present themselves one at a time
through the six doors, through the senses and the mind. Since the aim of the study of the
Abhidhamma is the development of right understanding of the realities of our life, I refer in this
book time and again to its development. Right understanding of nma and rpa is developed by
being mindful of them when they appear. Sati, mindfulness or awareness, is a wholesome
cetasika which is non-forgetful, aware, of the reality which appears at the present moment3. At
the very moment of sati the reality which appears can be investigated, and in this way right
understanding will gradually develop. Eventually nma and rpa will be seen as they are: as
impermanent and non-self. We should not forget that also awareness, sati, is a cetasika arising
because of its own conditions. If we have understood this we shall not force its arising or try to
direct it to particular objects, such as this or that cetasika. The study of the Abhidhamma can
prevent wrong ideas about the development of the Buddha's Path. The realities of our life,
including our defilements, should be understood as not self. So long as we take defilements for
self or mine they cannot be eradicated. The direct understanding of realities as non-self is the
condition for not doing evil, for cultivating the good and for purifying one's mind.
In the chapters which follow I shall deal with fifty two different types of cetasikas. I shall first
refer to seven types of cetasikas which accompany every citta. These are the Universals. Then I
shall refer to six types of cetasikas which can arise with cittas of four jtis, cittas which are
kusala, akusala, vipka and kiriya (neither cause nor result), but which do not accompany each
citta. These are called the Particulars After that I shall deal with the Akusala Cetasikas and
finally with the Beautiful (sobhana) Cetasikas.

PART I: The Universals